The CRS is a Congressional "think tank" with a staff of around 700. Reports are commissioned by members of Congress on topics relevant to current political events. Despite CRS costs to the tax payer of over $100M a year, its electronic archives are, as a matter of policy, not made available to the public.

Individual members of Congress will release specific CRS reports if they believe it to assist them politically, but CRS archives as a whole are firewalled from public access.

This report was obtained by Wikileaks staff from CRS computers accessible only from Congressional offices.

Turkey's year-long experiment with Islamist-led government ended in July, when a multi-party secularist coalition headed by Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz took office for what is viewed as a transition to early national elections sometime in 1998. The political situation is fluid. The government is addressing some economic problems and redirecting Turkey's foreign policy back toward the West and toward Turkic kin in Azerbaijan and Central Asia. There are problems in Turkey's relations with the European Union, with efforts to reach an international settlement on Cyprus, and in Turkish-Greek ties. The Administration and Congress are continuing to focus on security, democracy, and human rights in the U.S. dialogue with Ankara.